the flame

of what use is the flame
sealed inside those embers
of dark coal?
giving the word a chance
to name the unnameable,
the hearth of endurance
fanned by an unknowable breath
that stays and expels,
embraces and lingers
upon the coffins of time,
where aloneness steps out
into the vastness
with a million eyes and arms,
inviting the half moon lover,
stripping to both the night and day
without a word, without favour,
walking away from the confines
where breath cannot live,
closing the door of a home
that is much loved
but must be abandoned now,
with dreams left untended
in the fallow soil,
doused by the pangs of humiliation,
of being human,
and still walking on
as if the road never ends,
carrying with us
that single flame
of an unspeakable longing
for something that we all want
no matter where we stand,
what we see,
and what we leave.